The Era of the Ungrateful American
Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. I can’t fathom the ingratitude of American soccer star Meghan Rapinoe’s attitude toward America.
Writer Warner Todd Huston notes, “Rapinoe raised eyebrows in the 2018 season by taking a knee during the playing of the national anthem even though she is playing for the U.S. Women’s National soccer team. Her taking a knee only came to an end starting in the 2019 season because the team passed a rule requiring players to stand during the anthem. But she right away said that she would never sing the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ again, nor would she place her hand over her heart because she hates America.”
Sadly, she is by no means alone. There are millions of ungrateful Americans today.
I remember years ago seeing one of The Far Side cartoons by Gary Larson which showed one dog in his den showing another dog his mounted, stuffed trophies on his wall. There were a couple of stuffed cat heads and bird heads and also a human hand mounted on the wall. The host dog was saying to his guest, “And that’s the hand that fed me.”
What a fascinating contrast. Last week a man and his infant daughter tragically drowned trying to get to this country through illegal means. And yet the soccer star who was born here has nothing but contempt for the land of opportunity that has given her so many opportunities.
This reminds me of people who are ungrateful to the Lord, even though every beat of their heart is by His grace. When He says, “Enough,” it is over and then comes the judgment.
President Lincoln reminded us of our need for thankfulness to God when he called for a day of fasting and prayer during the conflict that tore this country apart.
On March 30, 1863, he wrote, “We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven ….But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.” [Emphasis added]
Our own prosperity as a nation has caused us to forget the Lord, said our 16th president: “Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!”
With another Fourth of July upon us, I think it is a good time to recall why we should be grateful as Americans. This country was born through the sacrifices of those who went before us.
What is the Fourth of July? It commemorates that date in 1776 when 56 men in Philadelphia, representing three million people, agreed by voice vote to adopt the final wording of our national birth certificate, the Declaration of Independence.
They knew their lives were on the line by voting for independence from England, and a handful of them paid the ultimate price for this declaration. Several of them were specifically targeted by the British.
The document declared that the rights of man come not from the king or the state, but from the Creator. It declared that when a government interferes too much with God-given rights, the government ultimately becomes illegitimate.
This declaration came years after futile attempts to work with the king to bring about an acceptable peace. But as the “men of Boston” put it, according to the great 19th century historian, George Bancroft: “While America is still on her knees, the king aims a dagger at her heart.”
We seem to forget the sacrifices of the founding fathers who bequeathed the freedoms, and subsequently, the prosperity we enjoy in this country.
A key founding father John Adams declared: “It is the will of heaven that the two countries should be sundered forever…” America would become its own nation, separate from England.
Adams adds that if we have to endure hardship because of it, God will still help see us through: “[I]t may be the will of heaven that America shall suffer calamities still more wasting and distresses yet more dreadful. If this is to be the case, the furnace of affliction produces refinement in states as well as individuals; but I submit all my hopes and fears to an overruling Providence, in which, unfashionable as the faith may be, I firmly believe.”
The men who birthed America and declared independence laid everything on line, as they trusted in God.
Why should Meghan Rapinhoe be grateful? Because she was born in a country which gave her opportunity to “write her own script” as some might put it. It is hard for me to comprehend ungrateful Americans.
Mr. Newcombe,
It is surprising that someone wants someone else to not exercise the freedoms and rights of the country that he declares makes this country great. How ironic? Do you think the British said the same thing when we were violently and criminally rebelling against them? Why didn’t those revolutionaries simply leave for another country. Why is it that when a certain set of Americans declare their independence, it is heroic, thoughtful and God-ordained, but when a different set of Americans, who love this country so much they are willing to endure public hardships and condemnation to remind this country, it isn’t living up to its own standards, they are shamed and bullied and called unpatriotic and selfish? Really!? Isn’t she saying the same thing as you wrote “The document declared that the rights of man come not from the king or the state, but from the Creator. It declared that when a government interferes too much with God-given rights, the government ultimately becomes illegitimate.” She is peacefully protesting in a personal manner, not violently, as those original revolutionaries did much quicker than women and minorities have resisted to do so. The USWNT isn’t being paid the same as their male counterparts despite them being more successful and profitable than the male counterparts, yet she loves this country so much, that instead of letting the team down with the great chance of not winning and securing world dominance that you and others will so proudly embrace, she decided to represent her country despite that easily correctly disparity. She is a lot more courageous than those who simply sit back and let injustice reign. In doing so she more like our founding fathers and revolutionaries, than those British citizens that told them they were disrespecting their country. Thank you for the opportunity to respond to your article.
Trump supporter/white evangelical slanders US soccer star Megan Rapinoe as “ungratef… https://t.co/HYA7cSjVBp
You have got Megan Rapinoe all wrong. You are condemning her as one who isn’t thankful for what she has.
Your article suggests that the Christian thing to do is to be be unquestionably thankful to the United States for the opportunity it has provided. My question is: for those of us who by the grace of god at lucky enough to live in this country turn a blind eye to the ills and injustices that happen in our country today?Is that the Christian thing to do? Be thankful for what we have …never mind the plight of our our brothers and sisters who have suffered racial injustice and inequality? It is the bravest among us Christians who step out of our bubble to help the persecuted or the downtrodden. That is what Meghan Rapinoe has done. You have it all wrong. She doesn’t hate America. She is more than thankful( by the way how do you know how thankful she is). She just wants to step out and call attention to darker, unjust and some of the evil that exists in America. She is using the platform afforded to her which she has earned through her hard work and god given talent. And she has weathered the storm that has come with her actions. (Moses weathered some too) In my opinion, she is more “Christian” than you ever will be.
Your article condemning her as thankless, hence a non patriot, hence thankless to god, is the antithesis of Christianity. The worst of Christian evil…an article like that which on the surface looks like the word of a man of god but full of veiled, racist and homophobic innuendo that easily poisons the minds of our less enlightened brothers and sisters.
Please provide a source for your Rapinoe “I hate America” quote.